Losing a years' worth of financial data can cause significant distress and make you immediately reach for the Restore option. However, using System Restore won't help you recover your data. System Restore only keeps system data to repair problems with new installations and the operating system. Other methods do exist to help you recover your data short of manually inputting the last year of data, but in the end that may be what you have to do.

Automated Backups

Failing to make a manual backup doesn't necessarily mean you have nothing to restore. Quicken usually alerts you that you haven't made a recent backup and the auto-backup feature may store backups you don't know about. Select the "File" menu, choose "Backup and Restore" and then click "Restore From Backup File..." from the list of options. Look for a backup file on your computer with the "QDF-Backup" extension. When you select the option to Restore From Backup File, you should automatically direct to the location where Quicken stores your backups.

Create Current Backup

Before attempting any repairs or a system restoration, you should create a manual back up to ensure against further loss so that you can revert any changes made during a validate or system restore process. Save the backup file to an external drive so that if you do decide to restore your system you don't lose your data. Select the "File" menu, click "Backup and Restore" and choose "Backup Quicken File..." to create a backup of your current data.

Rebuild Files

Sometimes, you haven't actually lost any data at all. Quicken may have the ability to restore your files from transaction log files that you can't normally view. Accept any pending transactions located on the register screen and then attempt to validate and repair your file. Select the "File" menu, choose "File Operations" and then select "Validate & Repair." Check the "Validate File" option and then click "OK." If you have investments, select the check box for "Rebuild Investing Lots" and "Delete Investing Price History" option.

File History

Before manually entering all of your lost transactions into the register, check to see if you have an automatic backup running on your machine. Launch File History to see if an older version of your Quicken files exists. Access the Charms bar and select the "Search" option. Type "Restore Your Files" and press "Enter." Search for ".QDF" to locate past versions of your Quicken file. Select the latest, previous version of your file and click the "Restore" button.

Disclaimer

Information in this article applies to Windows 8 and Quicken 2014. It may vary slightly or significantly with other versions or products.

About the Author

Avery Martin holds a Bachelor of Music in opera performance and a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian studies. As a professional writer, she has written for Education.com, Samsung and IBM. Martin contributed English translations for a collection of Japanese poems by Misuzu Kaneko. She has worked as an educator in Japan, and she runs a private voice studio out of her home. She writes about education, music and travel.